Senator Clinton called Reeve, who died of lung cancer March 6 at age 44, "one of the most exceptional people I have ever known. ... She was an exemplary, wonderful woman," the Associated Press reports.

Reeve cared for her husband, Superman star Christopher Reeve, after he was left a paraplegic by a 1995 horse-riding accident. She also steadfastly headed his charity fund for spinal chord research.

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"She was a sweet woman who was handed an extremely cruel fate," CNN anchor Paula Zahn said at the two-hour service. "She truly believed she had more time."

The couple's son, Will Reeve, 13, flanked by Matthew and Alexandra, Christopher Reeve's children from his relationship with Gae Exton, smiled for photographers outside Broadway's New Amsterdam Theatre, and said he "was doing good," reports USA Today.